Mean Monthly Flow Research Articles

Convergence of horizontal flux of water vapor in the general circulation of the atmosphere

An evaluation of the evaporation (E) over the North Atlantic Ocean has been made using recent data; this draws attention to the limitations of the turbulent flux method of estimating evaporation when applied to climatological data. Precipitation amounts (P) for a similar area and period are obtained using a recently developed technique. The resulting P - E distribution corresponds to the total convergence of water vapor brought about by atmospheric motions. The advective convergence (due to the mean monthly flow pattern) is subtracted from the total convergence to obtain the effect of the eddy motions on a smaller scale. The patterns of horizontal convergence due to advective and eddy transports are shown to differ appreciably from one another.